Tuesday, May 23, 2006

A bus for this Commemoration , which is organised each year by the Republican Movement , will leave from outside the old McBirneys/Virgin Megastore site on Dublin's Aston Quay at 12.45PM on the day : the Commemoration itself starts at 2.30PM .

The same bus will leave Bodenstown at 5.30PM that afternoon on its return to Dublin city centre . The fare is ten Euro per person .

For information on the death of Wolfe Tone , scroll through this piece(article starts on March 9 on that page) which was published on this blog last year . "To subvert the tyranny of our execrable government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all our political evils and to assert the independence of my country- these were my objectives. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic and Dissenter - these were my means." -Theobald Wolfe Tone .

MacGIOLLA's GUERRILLAS .......Fifteen years ago , the leadership of the 'Official Republican Movement' (now 'The Workers' Party') stated that their armed wing , the 'Official IRA' , went out of existence .Today , the 'Official IRA' is alive and well and living mainly in Belfast and Newry . In the days when both organisations were operating in an overt way , the leadership of 'The Workers' Party' and the 'Official IRA' overlapped to a certain degree . Tomas MacGiolla , the man who led the 'Official IRA' for the last twenty-five years has always maintained the position that the 'Official IRA' went out of existence in 1972 . But the 'Official IRA' still march on , not an army fighting the British , but as a fund-collecting agency . DEREK DUNNE traces the roots of the 'Official IRA' and 'The Workers' Party' .From 'IN DUBLIN' magazine , October 1987 .

In the late 1970's , about eighteen people from Newry - all Official IRA - went to jail for 'fund raising' activities : there followed a period of reflection in the Officials . Also in the late 1970's , four people were 'sent down' (ie locked up) for doing a robbery and the word went out that they had done it for themselves .

These men were released within the last couple of years and immediately initiated a procedure which resulted in the deposing of the leadership of the Officials in Newry just over a year ago (ie mid-to-late 1986) ; the old leadership had degenerated , and much of their activities involved salting away the money for personal use . The Official IRA today is a different organisation from that of the early 1970's , or even the early 1980's : the people now involved have made a career out of being 'professional soldiers' , and using the gun .

But now they do not point the guns at the British Army or the RUC : their guns are pointed in the direction of people who they wish to intimidate or threaten ....... ('1169...' Comment : History repeats itself - the PIRA are now tasked , by both Westminster and Leinster House , with keeping 'the dissidents' [ie those that seek to change the constitutional position regarding the Six Counties] in 'check' : a certain amout of activity from them in relation to that task will be tolerated by the 'Establishment' in this State and in Westminster , provided their 'efforts' stay focussed on the 'dissidents' .)(MORE LATER).

EOGHAN HARRIS : OUT OF THE SHADOWS ....... From 'MAGILL' magazine , November 1997 .By Brenda Power .

Dun Laoghaire (Dublin) Fianna Fail member Betty Coffey says she got a phone call and a strategy from Eoghan Harris - "...out of the blue . And it was brilliant advice . I admire him very much . " Adi Roche's campaign received some early encouragement from Harris , but he lost interest when reports of her brother's alleged Irish Republican sympathies made the headlines . Fergus Finlay stated - " Harris rang and said she'll have to repudiate her brother completely , which she would not do . He could'nt see that her brother's politics were not hers . "

Eoghan Harris said - " I wanted her to dump the brother , because it meant she had unfinished business on the National Question . And I believe the Irish people pronounce a secret fatwa on people who are soft on Sinn Fein : it may not show up in the polls , but Mary McAleese is holed below the water line , and it will sink her . I don't hate McAleese - in fact I admired her , she has great courage - I liked that 'in-your-face' Northern thing , she knows politics is a big boys' game played by big boys' rules , not a daisy chain like Adi Roche , she was thrilled to see myself and John Caden getting caught with our fingers in the pie . And she is far and away the sexiest woman in the race . But I never rated her as a reporter , she was a typical whingeing Northern grievance-monger and I consider that she is one of the armchair generals of the Nationalist community , the ones who did well out of positive discrimination but who keep on whinging : if they get to be Vice Chancellor of Queens they want to be Chancellor , then Chief Justice .

Sinn Fein are'nt into that kind of shit , any advancement they get is through the polls or the gun - I don't agree or respect that , but at least I understand it ! Compare her to somebody like David Irvine in his cheap shirt , coming from a little red brick house , going to a dreary miserable little UDP hall , doing his best to hold the peace . He's my hero . " The admiration is probably mutual : the November 1997 edition of the 'Orange Journal' newsletter compliments Eoghan Harris on his " ...support for the Unionist cause.. " , and Harris himself is also said to have claimed , to a senior Fianna Fail figure , that he has advised the Orange Order on publicity ....... (MORE LATER).

" WE ARE ALL PART OF THE SAME STRUGGLE ....... " MARGARET WARD , author of a recent book 'UNMANAGEABLE REVOLUTIONARIES' , on the role of women in the national struggle , argues critically that republicans need to develop a non-elitist attitude of support for the feminist movement as an integral part of the liberation struggle . From 'IRIS' magazine , November 1983 .No By-Line.

Feminists are inspired by the ideal of a future society in which there is no oppression , no exploitation , no forms of domination . But the ultimate achievement of such a society cannot be separated from the process of its making : if full democracy does not exist in the struggle today , how can there be in the future ?

It won't drop from the sky , it can only come , slowly and painfully , from ourselves . Feminists also believe that , because of the specific gender oppression of women , we must have an independent political movement so that we can develop our own strengths and decide upon our own demands . In other words , a movement that defines itself , that is 'autonomous' , but one which does not shut itself off from other struggles taking place .

The experience of organising as women increases our self-confidence , heightens our feelings of solidarity and enriches our participation in all political activities . It also gives us the strength to assert our own demands within the wider political context ; if this sounds irrelevant to readers of 'IRIS' , then let us take concrete examples to make the point more strongly.......(MORE LATER).